We had ser­vi­ces in Ter­vo­la church on the se­cond Sun­day of July. There was one ser­mon and some sin­ging. I me­ant to re­mem­ber the psalm text that was read as an int­ro­duc­ti­on to the ser­mon, but I for­got it. I won­der if it was Psalm 85 or 86? or 84?

On top of that, I do­zed off du­ring the ser­mon. The spe­a­ker might well have won­de­red why Mark­ku Jur­mu’s wife had not slept enough du­ring the win­ter and spring, when there were no ser­vi­ces. Here she was, slee­ping af­ter such a long time wit­hout ser­vi­ces.

I am now hol­ding a small vo­lu­me that con­tains the New Tes­ta­ment and the Psalms. The three psalms, of which one was read by the spe­a­ker at our ser­vi­ces, all have deep me­a­nings, pra­yers and even ap­pe­als to God for help. ”Even the spar­row has found a home, and the swal­low a nest for her­self, where she may have her yo­ung.” ”Su­re­ly his sal­va­ti­on is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.” ”Hear me, Lord, and ans­wer me, for I am poor and nee­dy.” ”But you, Lord, are a com­pas­si­o­na­te and gra­ci­ous God, slow to an­ger, aboun­ding in love and faith­ful­ness.”

I think this sum­mer has been a sum­mer of psalms.

One of the songs that was sung af­ter the ser­vi­ces was a fa­vo­ri­te song of mine, Song of Zion 299: “In yo­ur mer­cy alo­ne I fo­re­ver de­light”. I am al­wa­ys touc­hed by these words: ”This ini­qui­tous world to de­part I am ye­ar­ning.” And the last ver­se of the song is like a per­so­nal pra­yer to God: ”Though temp­ta­ti­ons op­p­ress and they weigh to the ground, in this val­ley of de­ath sha­dows gat­her me round, oh, for­get not Yo­ur own! Fat­her, hear, he­arts are wee­ping. On yo­ur grace-pro­mi­se sown, joy at last we’ll be re­a­ping.”

A friend that I met out­si­de the church af­ter the ser­vi­ces told me how, du­ring her va­ca­ti­on trip, she had met a per­son who had been the mi­nis­ter of Ter­vo­la pa­rish a long time ago. This mi­nis­ter had said that he had been lis­te­ning to SRK’s Sum­mer­ti­me Ser­vi­ces Bro­ad­casts. He had al­so been won­de­ring how be­lie­ving yo­ung pe­op­le had fa­red wit­hout ser­vi­ces, and if they had ta­ken the time to lis­ten to bro­ad­cast ser­vi­ces.

How very per­ti­nent wor­ries and thoughts!

One of the most fre­qu­ent­ly used co­ro­na­vi­rus terms last win­ter was herd im­mu­ni­ty or herd pro­tec­ti­on. We could now al­so talk about ”sheep herd pro­tec­ti­on”, kno­wing that yo­ung pe­op­le would su­re­ly have nee­ded that kind of pro­tec­ti­on in these hard ti­mes.

As part of a sheep herd, one is safe from ex­ter­nal dan­gers. It is sa­fer to be with so­me­o­ne than to be alo­ne. We al­wa­ys have our own per­so­nal bat­t­le against sin. But even in that bat­t­le we de­ri­ve help, strength and con­so­la­ti­on from the ot­her mem­bers of the sheep herd.

It is won­der­ful to hope and think that yo­ung pe­op­le will soon be ab­le to gat­her at ser­vi­ces again. In the sa­fe­ty of the herd.

Text: Han­na-Ma­ria Jur­mu

Trans­la­ti­on: Sirk­ka-Lii­sa Lei­no­nen

You will find the ori­gi­nal blog post here.